Technical experiments 2: Creating the foil pattern

Tools:

As I already described in my first article I purposed to produce the waffled structure by impressing intersecting lines. I was inspired by a special technique used in leather working to create decorative lines with a tool called creaser. But for the fine foil pattern a common modern creaser was too rough. After some experiments with a blunted knife edge I modified two riffle files whose working surface was v-shaped in cross-section. I ground off the cut and polished the lower edges.

Foil Materials:

Work surface material:

The third relevant component was the surface on which the foil has been worked. It had to be flexible, so the foil could be deformed. I did some preliminary tests on small boards of pine and beech wood and on deformable pitch, usually used for repoussé work. Because of its structure pine wood proved to be unsuitable. The beech wood and the pitch were both too hard. Finally I found two better materials which were much more appropriate:

1. beeswax

2. sheet of lead (1mm)

The foil has to be fixed on the working surface. That was no problem in case of the beeswax, which has itself enough adhesive power to hold the foil in place. On the lead I fixed the foil with the help of adhesive tape. A more authentic way could be the use of an organic adhesive like hide glue or a mechanical attachment.

Impressing the pattern:

The first step was to form parallel lines by running the tool along a ruler by a forward movement. Then the same action was repeated after turning the work piece by 90 degrees.

Fig. 2: Tracing the lines

The result was a waffle pattern! However it could have been more regular. But perhaps with some more practice it could be improved.

It is definitely possible to produce a more or less regular waffle pattern in the way described above. Probably the result could be improved if a double edge creaser is used, that makes it easier to form regular parallel lines.

But more experiments with different materials are necessary to allow significant comparisons with the original foils. It would also be interesting to see if boxed waffle or ring-and-dot pattern could also be made in that way.